Divide and rule is a law of imperialism and western style "democracy" is how imperialism implements this law in neocolonial Africa. It’s called “elections” and with it’s winner take all diktats division, conflict, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and civil war are the results.

Traditionally in Africa’s villages decisions and conflict resolution takes place using a consensus system with no absolute winners and losers, with all parties agreeing to the final decision and honor bound to carry it out. Just the opposite of what happens after “elections” in "democratic Africa".

The dishonor roll of "African Democracy" a.k.a. bought, rigged or stolen elections must begin with Ethiopia, where the ethnic minority regime declared themselves victors 12 hours after the polls closed with 99.6% of the seats in parliament.

Second place could go to Liberia, where the capital Monrovia has not had running water or electricity for the entire term of Eleanor Johnson’s Presidency, she who ran unopposed the last “election”, and won a Nobel Prize to boot.

Investigative Journalist Michael Hastings was killed Tuesday in a fiery crash close to his home in Los Angles. His car, which was reported to have been traveling at a high rate of speed, jumped the median and immediately exploded in a dramatic fashion upon impact with a tree.

Witness Luiz Cortez was quoted by KTLA as saying “I was just coming northbound on Highland and I seen a car going really fast, and all of a sudden I seen it jackknife, I just seen parts fly everywhere and I slammed on my brakes and stopped and tried to call 911.” According to various news reports the car’s engine was found in a yard between 60 and 100 feet away. Hastings was pronounced dead at the scene but his remains were too charred to immediately identify. His death was later confirmed by the LA county coroner’s office through fingerprints.

In a move that bears striking resemblance to Eric Holder's recent talks with press leaders to suppress reporting of human rights abuses, the British government and large elements of the press have colluded this week to censor coverage about Edward Snowden's latest leak this weekend, which proved that the UK government had spied on its G20 partners during the two economic summits in 2009.

Facing questions about GCHQ's secret surveillance of the summits, defense officials in the British government issued a D-notice to all of the UK's major news outlets to refrain from covering the story whilst the G8, containing many of the same diplomats as before, met in the British capital last week. The D-notice was eventually written about by rightwing blogger Paul Staines despite its being marked as "private and confidential: not for publication, broadcast or use on social media", but aside from some commentary in the Guardian there has been a notable silence throughout the British press on both the serving of the D-notice and the public discussion it hampers.

Edward Snowden’s disclosures, the New York Times reported on Sunday, “have renewed a longstanding concern: that young Internet aficionados whose skills the agencies need for counterterrorism and cyberdefense sometimes bring an anti-authority spirit that does not fit the security bureaucracy.”

Agencies like the NSA and CIA -- and private contractors like Booz Allen -- can’t be sure that all employees will obey the rules without interference from their own idealism. This is a basic dilemma for the warfare/surveillance state, which must hire and retain a huge pool of young talent to service the digital innards of a growing Big Brother.

With private firms scrambling to recruit workers for top-secret government contracts, the current situation was foreshadowed by novelist John Hersey in his 1960 book The Child Buyer. When the vice president of a contractor named United Lymphomilloid, “in charge of materials procurement,” goes shopping for a very bright ten-year-old, he explains that “my duties have an extremely high national-defense rating.” And he adds: “When a commodity that you need falls in short supply, you have to get out and hustle. I buy brains.”

Today, grassroots leaders in Ohio called out state leaders for failing to protect Ohioans from solid radioactive waste from hydraulic fracturing (fracking). According to local citizens groups, Governor Kasich’s budget bill will provide inadequate protection from low-level radioactive waste, and therefore constitutes a handout to the oil and gas industry. They are asking the state to require the oil and gas industry to properly dispose of Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW).

“The regulations represent yet another concession to the oil and gas industry at the expense of Ohioans’ health and safety,” says Alison Auciello, an organizer for Food & Water Watch. “Governor Kasich and our regulators are billing the proposal as a way to monitor and keep radioactive waste from landfills. But the legislation will indeed do the opposite of the claims made by the administration. Even worse, it gives a false sense of security that we are being protected. Disposal of radioactive waste should be considered a grave matter, not an ill-informed side note to the budget bill.”